Ontological Research Group

Principal Investigator: Marek Hatala
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Ontologies are high level conceptual models capturing important entities and their relationships in the domain of interest. They are based on logic and as such are well suited to apply reasoning. The Laboratory for Ontological Research (LORE) engages in the research where we want to achieve a significant advancement by applying ontologies and reasoning. Dr. Hatala and Dr. Gasevic are two core faculty members leading a group of 7-8 graduate students. There are three main areas of research:

First, interoperability is the most active area of the research with the longest history in our group. We studied and developed systems to support interoperability in large distributed systems such as e-learning networks. We developed interoperable solutions based on peer-to-peer and web services platforms, including security policies. We use ontologies and metamodeling to develop internal representations of languages (such as models of policy languages) and to interoperate between systems that are based on different formalisms. Currently, we are using metamodeling and reasoning to interoperate between languages for engineering of service-oriented architectures, including business process modeling languages, policy languages, and execution languages.

In the second area of research in our group, we model learning environments, learning content, and learners to provide learning support in specific learning situations. Currently we focus on developing support systems for mobile learning, i.e. facilitating learners on-the-go.

Finally, in the third area, we have continuing research in user and user group modeling, in particular in the ubiquitous, or ambient intelligence environments. We study how we can unobtrusively observe users' actions to understand users' goals and intentions and make the environment pro-active. We are working on a series of museum guides projects in collaboration with other groups at SIAT.

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